'Record of Youth' Episode 11 Review: Hae-hyo involving Hye-jun's ex in Charlie Jung scandal may hurt Jeong-ah
'Record of Youth' Episode 11 begins with Hye-jun (Park Bo-gum) getting called in to record his statement after Charlie Jung's death. Hye-jun is taken by surprise when this happens and he ends up being taken aback when he hears that the designer could have died by suicide. While he records the statement, he also mentions to the cop that they should read the message that Charlie Jung had left him when Hye-jun had refused to answer his calls. With that, he is done with the witness statement, however, he is not done with the scandal that speculates that he had been dating Charlie Jung and had even been sponsored by him during his modeling days.
The reporter who consults Lee Tae-su about Hye-jun and Hae-hyo (Byeon Woo-seok) as he used to manage both of them before they left his agency because of his corrupt practices ends up hearing about Charlie Jung from Tae-su who doesn't want to see Hye-jun succeed. He is mad that Hye-jun abandoned him and doesn't want to see him succeed, especially not when he is ready to overtake Tae-su's client in his new office Park Do-ha. In fact, Hye-jun had also won the Best Actor Award while competing against Do-ha and that left both the manager and the client bitter. As a result, Tae-su was dead set on ruining Hye-jun. At this time, Charlie Jung's death only made matters worse for Hye-jun.
So when Hye-jun tells his new manager Min-jae (Shin Dong-mi) that he wants to attend Charlie Jung's funeral, she tries to explain how this could be problematic for him. He doesn't take her lightly but instead tells her that a person's death definitely is more important than thinking selfishly about one's career alone. Of course, at this time, Hye-jun gets an opportunity to work in a Hollywood film, but all this could negatively impact his future prospects and that is what worries Min-jae the most.
Initially, she doesn't connect all the dots to conclude that Tae-su could have done something this extreme. However, she underestimates his greed. Since Hye-jun began to succeed, Tae-su has had an eye on him and has been wanting to manage him and his projects for over six months now. So this is his long term plan and he indicates as much when Min-jae finally figures out how he could be connected. He even tells her that Hye-jun is a star now and not someone that Min-jae can easily manage. Unfortunately, Min-jae proves his point every time she drops the ball. Neither did she keep track of media and what it has to say about Hye-jun and nor was she able to take the right action when the speculation had started in the first place. She is being immature and even fans of Hye-jun are able to see how inefficient she is.
While she deals with hatred from Hye-jun's fans, she wonders if Jeong-ah (Park So-dam) coming out as Hye-jun's girlfriend might help his case. She wonders this in front of Jeong-ah who has always been supportive of Hye-jun and wants to do everything for him. So Jeong-ah decides to come out on her social media broadcast, but Hae-hyo has done something unnecessary without even consulting Hye-jun, from the looks of it.
He is contacted by Hye-jun's ex-girlfriend Ji-ah who agrees to talk to the reporter who in the first place claimed that Hye-jun was speculated to be dating the designer. Since neither Jeong-ah nor Hye-jun is aware of this plan, Ji-ah claiming she once dated Hye-jun would only hurt her. At the end of the episode, the shot places Hye-jun and Hae-hyo on opposing sides and that is what makes us wonder if Hae-hyo planned all of this to check if Hye-jun and Jeong-ah are really going steady.
Every time Jeong-ah draws a clear line between herself and Hae-hyo, we see his disappointed look, and it makes us wonder if he would go to the extent of backstabbing his friend for her or if he was only trying to test their relationship.
'Record of Youth' originally airs on tvN on Mondays and Tuesdays in South Korea and can be streamed on Netflix in the US.